Ivan Petrovich Pavlov Collection of 18 Contemporary Laboratory Photographs, ca. 1900

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Summary

Creators:
Kupalov, Petr Stepanovich 1904-1995
Abstract:
The collection of photographs, taken around the turn of the 20th century, shows Pavlov's laboratories, coworkers, and some laboratory procedures used in his experiments. The photographs were presented by one of Pavlov's pupils, Professor Petr Stepanovich Kupalov, to Dr. Mary A. B. Brazier, Professor of Anatomy, UCLA, in 1958 on the occasion of an international meeting in Russia. Dr. Brazier presented the photos to the History and Special Collections Division, UCLA Biomedical Library in 1985, in honor of UCLA School of Medicine's former Dean, Sherman M. Mellinkoff, M.D.
Extent:
18 mounted 9 x 7" photographs
Language:
Collection materials in English
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Ivan Petrovich Pavlov collection of 18 contemporary laboratory photographs (Manuscript collection 19). Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections Division, University of California, Los Angeles.

Background

Scope and content:

The 18 photographs are approximately 9" x 7", mounted on 13.5" x 9.75" gray cardboard matts. All but two of the pictures have a typed explanatory label glued to the cardboard back, which formed the basis for captions used in an UCLA Library exhibit shortly after receipt of the collection; these captions are also included.

The photographs picture Prof. Pavlov and his coworkers at the St. Petersburg Institute for Experimental Medicine ca. 1902, some of the experimental dogs in the laboratory and outside, and Institute buildings and laboratories.

Biographical / historical:

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936) studied physiology and received a doctorate in medicine from St. Peterburg University in 1883. From 1879 to 1890 he was professor of pharmacology in St. Petersburg, then became professor of physiology and later director of the St. Peterburg Institute for Experimental Medicine until 1936. After early work on control of blood pressure he soon turned to studying the physiology of digestion. The new techniques of surgery and postoperate care he invented openend up the study of digestive processes in normal healthy animals over long periods of time.

Pavlov's investigation of digestion in living dogs led him to propose a new theory of behavior. Based on his observations of the reaction of dogs to the sight of food or to the sound of a bell they associated with food, he formulated the idea and coined the term conditioned reflex, providing a way of reducing complex behavior to basic units that could be studied in scientific terms. During the 1920s Pavlov and his students extended his theory of animal behavior to human psychology. For his work in digestive physiology he was awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology in 1904.

Acquisition information:

Prof. Petr Stepanovich Kupalov, a student of Pavlov, presented these photographs to Dr. Mary A. B. Brazier, Professor of Anatomy, Physiology, and Biophysics, UCLA School of Medicine, in 1958. Dr. Brazier and her UCLA colleague, Dr. Horace Magoun, were visiting various neurophysiology laboratories in the Soviet Union that summer and participating in two international meetings in Leningrad and Moscow.

In 1985 Dr. Brazier gave the photographs to the UCLA Biomedical Library in honor of the UCLA School of Medicine's former dean, Sherman Mellinkoff.

Physical location:
History and Special Collections Division, Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, University of California, Los Angeles

Access and use

Restrictions:

The photographs are available for viewing at the History and Special Collections Division, UCLA Louise Darling Biomedical Library.

Terms of access:

Publication Rights

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Ivan Petrovich Pavlov collection of 18 contemporary laboratory photographs (Manuscript collection 19). Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library History and Special Collections Division, University of California, Los Angeles.

Location of this collection:
Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library
12-077 Center for Health Sciences, Box 951798
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1798, US
Contact:
(310) 825-6940
AskLSC@library.ucla.edu
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